Abstract
In a multi-manned assembly line, tasks of the same workpiece can be executed simultaneously by different workers working in the same station. This line has significant advantages over a simple assembly line such as shorter line length, less work-in-process, smaller installation space, and less product flow time. In many realistic line balancing situations, there are usually more than one objective conflicting with each other. This paper presents a preemptive goal programming model and some heuristic methods based on variable neighborhood search approach for multi-objective assembly line balancing problems with multi-manned stations. Three different objectives are considered, minimizing the total number of multi-manned stations as the primary objective, minimizing the total number of workers as the secondary objective, and smoothing the number of workers at stations as the tertiary objective. A set of test instances taken from the literature is solved to compare the performance of all methods, and results are presented.
Highlights
Lines are mostly installed for producing products in high volumes and usually include automatic material handling system [1], tools, workers, and more than one workpiece
Ct: Cycle time, ti: Duration of task i, I: Set of tasks; I = {1, 2, . . . , n}, J: Set of stations; J = {1, 2, . . . , n}, where n is a valid upper bound for the number of stations [11], K: Set of workers at a station; K = {1, 2, . . . , Mmax}, P(i): Set of immediate predecessors of task i, Pa(i): Set of all predecessors of task i, S(i): Set of immediate successors of task i, Sa(i): Set of all successors of task i, ψ, Ω, Φ: Large positive numbers, Lmax: Target value of the number of stations opened in the line, TMmax: Target value of the total number of workers used in the line
{1, if station j is opened uj = {{0 otherwise, d1+, d1−: Positive and negative deviations from the target value Lmax of the number of stations opened in the line, d2+, d2−: Positive and negative deviations from the target value TMmax of the total number of workers used in the line, d3+, d3−: Positive and negative deviations from the target value zero of the smoothness index value of the line
Summary
Lines are mostly installed for producing products in high volumes and usually include automatic material handling system [1], tools, workers, and more than one workpiece. For solving MALBP with minimizing both number of workers and multi-manned stations in the same order, Fattahi et al [11] proposed a MIP model and a heuristic method based on ant colony optimization. In their comparison study, they showed their heuristic’s superiority over the heuristic by Dimitriadis [9].
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